“I stare into my own eyes for a moment. Today is the day of the aptitude test that will show me which of the five factions I belong in. And tomorrow, at the Choosing Ceremony, I will decide on a faction; I will decide the rest of my life; I will decide to stay with my family or abandon them.”
For anyone who is an avid fan of The Hunger Games trilogy or just loves a good helping of action-packed dystopia, Veronica Roth’s debut book Divergent definitely earns it place as one of the freshest young adult dystopian novels on the bookshelves.
Set in the futuristic urban environment of Chicago, our heroine, Beatrice “Tris” Prior, lives in a society divided and ruled by five personality-based factions: Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the kind), Erudite (the intelligent), Candor (the honest), and Abnegation (the selfless). Although separated, these factions work peacefully together in a checks-and-balances fashion that allows everyone to live harmoniously without the consequences of warfare or corruption. The story begins on the day of Tris’s aptitude test, an examination that all sixteen-year-olds of the society are required to take that recommends which faction best suits their character. Because her parents are from Abnegation, Tris has endured a strictly basic lifestyle with her family, a selfless and simple life that has left her feeling more like an outsider than a member of society. Upon this realization comes the allure of the Dauntless, the notoriously dangerous and dare-devilish faction that Tris feels drawn to despite her modest upbringing.
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Ultimately, Tris grapples with her identity and her independence, the choice to stay with her family or to embark on a different path, and the novel traces the shocking reveal of her tests results to the faction she inevitably chooses in the end. Does she choose the faction that she feels safe and familiar with, or the one that can help reinvent her into the person she feels she was meant to be?
Seriously, for anyone who loves dystopia, an action-packed story, or a heroine who isn’t annoying, this book is definitely for you. Dystopia has sky-rocketed to one of the hottest genres in young adult literature, and this book is a clear example of why. For starters, Roth sets the reader in a very grounded environment and society, one that is so creatively and eerily systematic that something is bound to go wrong. This situation gives the opportunity to tell the story of Tris, an unassuming, bullied Abnegation girl who starts to grow into herself through the decisions she makes and the shocking secrets she discovers about her seemingly perfect society. The story doesn't really begin until after she makes her choice of what faction she wanted to choose—but of course I couldn't reveal that little spoiler.
The book then goes on to trace the initiation process of her chosen faction, where she encounters an interesting handful of characters, along with a mysterious and intense guy (a.k.a. the love interest), who help guide her and the plot line itself. One of the best things about this book is that although there is romance, it does not define the story’s momentum or slap you in the face every other page. While the romance factor is a definite pull for all the love-junkies out there, this book has a lot more to offer than dewy-eyed teenagers repeatedly mooning over each other. Roth has managed to ground real life teen problems within this unbelievable and futuristic setting, such as independence, identity and self-discovery, fear, bullying, parents’ expectations, separation, and more. Roth has even created a pretty strong heroine that people can actually appreciate, one who becomes stronger and tougher in dealing with these real life issues in her surreal world (no Bella Swans in here, I assure you). There is action and good, quick writing in this book, and there are also messages that hint at something in our own society like a precautionary tale. But then again, what did you expect from a dystopia? I promise you, pick this book up and it won’t disappoint.
Written by Janella Angeles
